A Garland man, who recently won a years-long battle against the Dallas Police Department after he was wrongfully arrested for possessing guns and drugs, has been declared brain dead following a recent motorcycle accident, his attorney said Tuesday.

Thomas Hannon, 43, was being kept on life support Tuesday because his family had decided to donate his organs, said attorney, Scott Palmer.

“It’s just a horrible situation,” Palmer said. “He was more than a client. He had become a friend.”The accident occurred about 1:45 a.m. June 17 as Hannon rode his motorcycle along a service road of the North Central Expressway near Maham Road. He was wearing his helmet.

As Hannon was approaching a red light, he braked and the motorcycle began to skid, according to a Dallas police report.

“The bike went one way and he went the other,” Palmer said.

In a strange twist of fate, the accident happened not far from the hotel where he was wrongfully arrested in August 2007 outside of a North Dallas hotel. A federal jury would later conclude that two Dallas police officers violated Hannon’s constitutional rights by hiding the existence of surveillance video that showed the convicted felon wasn’t carrying a bag containing guns and drugs.

He spent 10 months in jail and right before he was set to go to trial, his attorney discovered the existence of the surveillance video. The cases against him were dropped.

Hannon filed a lawsuit in early 2009, but it took several years for the wise to wind its way through the legal system. In early 2012, a federal jury sided with Hannon, awarding him $169,000. The officers and the city appealed the ruling.

In March, a federal judge denied a motion for a new trial in the case and ordered that attorney’s fees totaling an additional $241,000 be paid to Palmer and his other attorney, John Wall. The Dallas City Council approved paying the settlement in May.

Palmer said a few days before the motorcycle crash he had deposited Hannon’s jury award into his bank account.

“This was not how it was supposed to end,” his attorney said. “What are the chances? He’s waited all these years and he’s not able to enjoy it because he’s mortally wound and never recovers. It’s the saddest thing you’ve ever seen.”